SynopsisThe young couple Li Daping and Chen Jin have come from the country to moonlight in the town. Chen Jin drives a minivan through the dirty streets of Southern Chinese megacity. Li Daping sells the tickets to the passengers. Whereupon Zhang Haili, Chen Jin‘s former girlfriend – complete with miniskirt and high heels – walks into their lives. She installs herself in the couple‘s flat and starts to disturb the equilibrium. The two women learn to hate one another. However, being somewhat older and more self-aware, Zhang Haili knows how to play her charm – this in contrast to Li Daping who, more homespun and shy, lets herself be pushed into a corner and devotes herself to knitting.

The ménage á trois comes to a close when Chen Jin falls in with criminal circles and suddenly disappears. Li Daping, now pregnant, is left behind. A common destiny begins to emerge between the two rivals.

Yin Lichuan use contemplative pictures to view her protagonists from a distance. And she uses her moral saga, set against the background of the economic revolution in China, to portray three characters living on the margins of society. The screenplay is based on Amei‘s The Story of Li Ai and Haihai which was ultimately inspired by the Chinese legend of Zhi Nu, the immortal weaver, and Niu Lang, the poor cowherd. Niu Lang Zhi Nu (Knitting) was also shown in the course of the Directors‘ Fortnight in Cannes 2008.

BiographyYIN LICHUAN studied at the University of Beijing and film at the École Supérieure d’Études Cinématographiques (ESEC) in Paris. She has published novels, short stories, essays and poems. In 2006, she made her first film – Gongyuan (The Park) – which won the International Film Critics Award at the 56th Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival. The magazine Variety named Yin Lichuan »one of the ten most eye-catching young directors in the new Chinese film power«.